What's New at OSN?

Amy Feiereisel was one of our outstanding resident studio assistants in 2016. Amy has many talents and passions (food, language and art among them!) Not only a strong painter and illustrator, Amy is an eloquent writer and Tusa gave her a lot of material. She was busy writing during her stay and we are so happy to share that she has now published a collection of short stories inspired by her time in Tusa!

The Town on the Hill is a short collection of stories set in a small town in Northern Sicily, from the perspective of residents and outsiders. It combines travel and food writing with fictional stories in a very particular, bizarre, and beautiful place : Sicily. Each story can be read in less than thirty minutes, and each stands entirely on its own. However, read as a whole, the character of the town and its people emerges, rising up from the cool shadows of crumbling walls.

If you enjoy travel writing, literary realism, or falling down rabbit holes, The Town on the Hill offers a dive into the unique culture and daily life of a small corner of Sicily.

Note from the Author: I wrote this collection of short stories in the summer of 2016, while living in a small hill town on the Northern coast of Sicily. The town itself seemed a character to me, and its inhabitants endlessly complex and compelling. I had never written fiction before, but somehow it felt right in that dusty, walled place between the Mediterranean sea and the faded sky. Many of the stories are ‘real life’ re-imagined; there really was a Sirocco dinner party, I almost drowned at the beach, and a good friend truly stole funeral monuments without realizing it. Others are entirely fabricated from my own mind.

— Amy Feiereisel

Amy has been so generous to allow us to publish some of the short stories here on our blog! Stay tuned, as we will be posting them periodically - they are poignant and poetic and so worth the read. Pick up your own copy of the collectionhere!